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DID THE 



LOUISIANA PURCHASE 



EXTEND TO THE 



PACIFIC OCEAN P 



AND- 



OUR TITLE TO OREGON. 



JOHN J. ANDERSON, Ph. D. 




Republished from 
THE PACIFIC SCHOOL AND HOME JOURNAL 

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
1880. 

BACON & COMPANY, PTCINTTCTtS. 




ASJ 



.■■" 



DID THE "LOUISIANA PURCHASE" EXTEND 
TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN? 



BY JOHN J. ANDERSON, PH. D. 



P to the appearance of the United States Census Report of 1870, it was 
generally understood and believed that the territory acquired from 
France in 1803, commonly known as the •'Louisiana Purchase," extended no 
further west than the Rocky Mountains. Every author of note, so far as is 
within the writer's knowledge, who expressed any opinion on the subject, so 
declared ; but since the advent of that report, containing a map as it does in 
which the "Purchase" is made to extend to the Pacific, several compilers of 
school histories, adopting the verdict of the map, have asserted that the " Pur- 
chase " extended to the Pacific ; and this assertion is now found in their books, 
and is consequently taught as a truth. One author, while adhering to his for- 
mer statement, that, " What is now the State of Louisiana was but a little part of 
the vast territory which bore then that name, for this territory extended from the 
Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains," has inserted in his book an exact copy of 
the census map referred to, without correcting the second error of the map, 
which asserts that Texas was ceded to the United States by Mexico in 1848. 
Need he be told that Texas was "annexed" to the Union in 1845, and was 
immediately after represented in our National Congress ? It is thus seen that 
while some instructors are teaching that the western limits of the " Louisiana 
Purchase " did not extend beyond the Rocky Mountains, others are teaching 
that the limits did not stop short of the Pacific Coast. Whom are we to be- 
lieve? Both sides cannot.be correct. Let us look into the facts. 

In the year 1682, the French explorer La Salle descended the Mississippi 
river to its mouth, taking possession of the country in the name of his king, 
Louis XIV. In this region the French planted settlements, established mis- 
sionary stations, and built military posts. Already we come to the important 
question upon which hinges the solution of the whole matter. What was the 
extent of the territory not merely occupied but claimed by the French? Park- 
man, in his "Discovery of the Great West," a work evincing extensive and 
patient research, says (p. 284): "The Louisiana of to-day is but a single State 
of the American Republic. The Louisiana of La Salle stretched from the 
Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, from the Rio Grande and the Gulf to the 
farthest springs of the Missouri." Greenhow, in his " History of Oregon and 
California" (p. 283), makes a like declaration, and so do all other writers who 
have given special investigatiog^o die subject. 

The French remained in possession of Louisiana till 1762., In November 
of that year, preliminaries of peace were agreed to at Paris, between France 

i 






2 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

and Spain on the one side, and England and Portugal on the other, and, by the 
treaties directly afterward made, France ceded to Spain " all the country known 
under the name of Louisiana, as also New Orleans and the island on which 
that city is situated," and Great Britain, a little more than two months later, 
" received possession of Canada, Florida, and the portion of Louisiana east of 
the line drawn along the middle of the Iberville river to the sea." Spain thus 
came in quiet possession of all the region of Louisiana west of the Mississippi 
and the Iberville. (The Iberville is an outlet of the Mississippi, about four- 
teen miles south of Baton Rouge). The fact that arrests our attention at this 
stage of the investigation is that while the treaties made at Paris gave Louisiana 
a definite boundary on the east, nothing was said of a western boundary. Why 
was this omission ? Greenhow (p. 279), offers an explanation in these words : 
" With regard to the western limits of Louisiana, no settlement of boundaries 
was necessary, as the territory thus acquired by Spain would join other territory 
of which she also claimed possession." The western part of Louisiana it will 
be noted, joined other territory : it did not extend to the Pacific. 

During the next thirty-eight years Spain was in possession of Louisiana. 
In the year 1800, an exchange of territories was effected, Spain, in order to 
enlarge the dominions of one of her royal princes, transferring to France the 
province of Louisiana in exchange for certain lands in Italy. The language 
of the transfer is an important factor in this investigation. "His Catholic 
majesty," so says the transfer, " engages to retrocede to the French Republic, 
the province of Louisiana, with the same extent which it now has in the hands 
of Spain, and which it had when France possessed it, and such as it should be, 
according to the treaties subsequently made between Spain and other states." 
Was language ever more explicit ? This, certainly, does not look like giving 
to Louisiana the Pacific Ocean for its western boundary. 

We now come to the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States. This 
was accomplished, as we all know, during Jefferson's administration. It is a 
matter of history that Jefferson had no purpose of receiving more territory 
than the island on which New Orleans is situated, and the region commonly 
known as the Floridas. Randall, in his "Life of Jefferson," expresses the 
opinion that the president desired to procure the whole territory of Louisiana, 
but there is not the slightest evidence of this in all the official correspondence 
of the time. Be that as it may, Napoleon's proposition to sell the whole prov- 
ince, produced a great surprise to the American negotiators in Paris. The 
purchase was effected on the 30th of April, 1803. Now, the vital question 
just here is, what did we buy? How large was the purchase ? The treaty, or, 
as we may call it, the bill of sale, itself, will best answer the question. After 
reciting the third article of the treaty of 1800, the territory thus retroceded to 
France was, says the bill of sale, " ceded to the United States, in the name 
of the French Republic, as fully and in the same manner as it had been 
acquired by the French Republic, in virtue of the above-mentioned treaty with 
his Catholic majesty." This, and nothing more. "No other description of 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 3 

boundaries," says Greenhow, "could ever be obtained from the French govern- 
ment." In our negotiations with Spain, commenced at Madrid in 1804, for 
l he adjustment of the lines which were to separate the territories of the two 
governments, Spain contended "that the Louisiana ceded to Spain by France 
in 1762, and retroceded to France in 1800, and transferred by the latter power 
to the United States in 1803, could nqt, in justice, be considered as comprising 
more than New Orleans, with the tract in its vicinity east of the Mississippi, 
fmd the country immediately bordering on the west bank of that river" 
(Greenhow, p. 280) ; and in 1818, up to the close of the long-pending nego- 
tiations, now conducted at Washington, Don Onis, the Spanish Minister, firmly 
reiterated this declaration (Hildreth, Vol. VI., p. 647). On the 12th of 
March, 1844, Mr. A. V. Brown, from the "Committee on the Territories," 
made a report in Congress, covering twenty-four closely printed pages, in which 
t-his whole question is thoroughly discussed. In all this long report there is not 
the first attempt to prove that our right to Oregon came to us through the 
Louisiana Purchase. Witness the language of the report: "The Louisiana 
treaty cedes to the United States, the province of Louisiana, with the same ex- 
tent it had in the hands of Spain in 1800, and that it had when previously 
possessed by France." This description is loose, but Napoleon chose to exe- 
cute a quit claim rather that a warranty of boundaries. But why did 
Napoleon so choose ? Why did he not give us a deed of the territory to the 
Pacific ? For the best of all reasons. He did not own, nor had he ever owned 
that extent of territory. He sold us just what he had — nothing more. He 
wanted the money, for just at that moment he was going to war with England ; 
and we, when the unexpected opportunity came, discovered that we wanted the 
land he could sell— every inch of it. 

In support of the conclusion we have reached, there is abundant testi- 
mony, the most of it in the shape of official documents. The correspondence, 
with accompanying documents consisting of instructions and reports, com- 
mencing in the early part of 1823, between John Quincy Adams, Secretary of 
State, and Richard Rush, Envoy Extraordinary to Great Britain, gives us 
the first full view of the whole subject. "All the rights of Spain to the western 
territory north of the forty-second degree of latitude," says Mr. Adams, " were 
acquired by our treaty with Spain in 1819." The right of the United States," 
continues Mr. Adams, " to the Columbia River and to the interior territory 
washed by its waters, rests (1) upon its discovery from the sea, and nomination 
by a citizen of the United States ; (2) upon its exploration to the sea by Captains 
Lewis and Clark ; (3) upon the settlement of Astoria, made under the pro- 
tection of the United States ; and (4) upon the subsequent acquisition of all 
the rights of Spain." In the long letter of instruction to Mr. Rush, from 
which we make the foregoing extract, Mr. Adams makes not the slightest allu- 
sion to the Louisiana Purchase. Our claim to the Oregon region, in his opin- 
ion, rested upon the four titles named. On the 12th of August, 1824, in a 
long communication covering many pages, Mr. Rush replies to Mr. Adams. 



4 THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

In this communication, Mr. Rush, with great clearness, gives an account of the 
discussions which he had carried on with the representatives of the British 
government, but not the first intimation, from beginning to end, fs made con- 
cerning any claim by reason of the Louisiana., Purchase. 

We next come to the correspondence between Mr. Clay, Secretary of 
State, and Mr. Gallatin, Envoy to Great Britain. This commenced in the 
summer of 1826. Mr. Clay says not a word of the Louisiana Purchase ; and 
Mr. Gallatin, in his able and exhaustive discussion on the subject, as mani- 
fested in his letters, and -in his celebrated pamphlet of seventy-five pages, 
published in 1846, makes but the briefest allusion to the Louisiana Purchase. 
The whole bent of his argument is to show that our title to Oregon came to 
us through discoveries, exploration, and occupation. Mr. Cushing's report, 
made to Congress in January, 1839 ; the books written from the English stand- 
point, by the English authors, Thomas Falconer, Tavers Twiss, and John 
Dunn, besides numerous pamphlets, an able article in the North-American 
Review for 1845 (p. 214), as well as presidents' messages, and reports of debates 
in Congress, — all reviewing and discussing the Oregon Question — have been 
read by me with care ; but nowhere have I seen any attempt whatever to prove 
that any part of the region west of the Rocky Mountains ever belonged to 
France, or that France ever made any pretense of conveying it to the United 
States. The region was no part of the Louisiana Purchase. 

I have alluded more than once to the book prepared by Mr. Greenhow, 
and from it cited passages in support of my statements, Who was Mr. Green- 
how? He was for a number of years the "Librarian to the Department of 
State, - ' Washington, and was employed by the department to translate the Span- 
ish and French documents relating to the history of Louisiana and Oregon, to 
make researches and report respecting the Spanish, French, English, Russian 
and American discoveries and explorations of and in the west and northwest 
territory of North America ; and the result of his labors, a book of 492 pages, 
was published in 1840, by direction of the United States Senate. It was the 
authority upon which Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, based his arguments 
in his negotiations with Mr. Pakenham, the British Envoy, which terminated in 
the treaty framed by those gentlemen, and which was adopted in 1846. Mr. 
Greenhow's book may, therefore, be regarded as the highest authority. His 
conclusion with reference to our claim to the Oregon regions as based upon 
the Louisiana Purchase, is summed up in these words (p. 283): "How far 
Louisiana extended westward when it was ceded by France to Spain, there are 
no means of determining. The question has never been touched in treaties, 
or even in negotiations, so far as is known. In the absence of more direct 
light on the subject from history, we are forced to regard the boundaries indi- 
cated by nature — namely, the highlands separating the waters of the Mississippi 
from those flowing into the Pacific or .the California Gulf — as the true western 
boundaries of the Louisiana ceded by France to Spain in 1762, and retroceded 
to France in 1800, and transferred to the United States by France in 1803." 



OUR TITLE TO OREGON. 



IN a former article we showed that no part of the territory west of the Rocky 
Mountains was ever any part of the region that came to us from France in 
1803. As the " Louisiana .Purchase " extended as far west as the Rocky 
Mountains and no farther, the region beyond, from the forty-second degree 
of latitude to the forty-ninth, came to us in some other way. In what way 
it is our present purpose to show. 

It is certain that the Spaniards were the first navigators to reach the west- 
ern coast of North America. Their explorations, begun by Cortez and 
under his direction, were continued (in 1542) by Cabrillo, who examined the 
coast as far as the northern limits of San Francisco Bay. The death of 
Cabrillo occurring while he was engaged in this enterprise, his pilot, Ferrelo, 
prosecuted the undertaking, reaching the point, as far probably as the forty-third 
degree of latitude (1543). Soon Spanish galleons crossed the Pacific from 
Mexico to the Philippine Islands and China, and returning, were compelled, 
by reason of the easterly or trade winds in the lower latitude, to take a 
northward course. In consequence, they often struck the North American 
coast far to the north of Mexico, in one case, it is asserted, beyond the fifty- 
seventh degree. 

Up to 1575 no English vessel had been in the Pacific. In that year a 
party of English freebooters, commanded by John Oxenham, crossed the 
Isthmus of Darien, built a small vessel, launched it on the Pacific, and for 
several months pursued a career of piracy, Spanish vessels, of course, being 
the victims. At length they were captured, and, with few exceptions, hung. 
Three years later their fate was avenged by the " splendid pirate," as Ban- 
croft calls him, Francis Drake. Entering the Pacific by way of the Straits 
of Magellan, Drake plundered the Spanish settlements on the west coast of 
America, captured, pillaged, and destroyed Spanish vessels ; and then, sur- 
mising that the people whom he had so cruelly treated were making prepara- 
tions to intercept him on his return, resolved to make an attempt to reach 
England by sailing across the Pacific and around the northern part of Asia 
and Europe. After sailing in a north-westerly direction for several weeks, 
and encountering cold and violent rains, he put back to the American coast. 
Abandoning the attempt northward, from San Francisco Bay or the Bay of 
Bodega — it is not certain which — he made his second, and, as it proved, suc- 
cessful departure. What extent of coast Drake saw is not known. He 
never made any report, either by journal or other writing ; but it is certain 
what he did see had been previously seen by the Spaniards. 

For a period of nearly two hundred years, if we except a voyage made 
by Vizcaino, in 1603, under instructions from King Philip II, of Spain, no 



6 OUR TITLE TO OREGON. 

attempts were made to explore any part of the north-western coast of North 
America. Vizcaino's explorations extended to the forty-third parallel of 
latitude ; and till 1774 nothing was known with certainty of any part of the 
coast further north as far as Alaska. Then, by direction of the Spanish 
kin^, four exploring voyages were sent in quick succession from Mexico, and 
the coast as far north as the fifty-sixth degree of latitude was carefully 
examined (1774-1779). Up to this time and until 1790, Spain's claims to 
the western side of America as far north as Alaska had at no time been 
called into question. Important explorations, however, had been made on 
the extreme north-western part of the continent on behalf of the Russians. 
Behring's Straits had been entered by the daring navigator whose name it 
still bears, and between 1741 and 1770, the whole of the Alaska coast, down 
to its southmost point, was explored. 

We have noticed the voyage made by Francis Drake (1577-1580). No 
further explorations were made by the English in the North Pacific for a 
period of about two hundred years. Then the celebrated Captain Cook 
appeared upon the ocean. It was believed at that time that there existed a 
passage connecting Hudson's Bay with the Pacific. Cook's object was to 
find it. He entered the Pacific, doubling the Cape of Good Hope, and in 
January of 1778, discovered the Sandwich Islands. Steering eastward he 
reached the American coast, and traced it more than 2000 miles, but as the 
same had already been explored by the Spaniards or Russians, no claim, on the 
ground of first discovery, could be accorded to him. Other voyages were 
made to the coast by Russians as well as Englishmen, their object, in most 
cases, being for furs ; but none of them were of any importance as respects 
our present investigations. We now come to the facts upon which the gov- 
ernment of our country based its claim to the Oregon region. By this term 
— the Oregon region — we mean all the domain west of the Rocky Mountains 
now included in the State of Oregon and the territories of Washington and 
Idaho. 

In the latter part of 1787, the ship Columbia, commanded by John Ken- 
drick, and the sloop Washington, commanded by Robert Gray, sailed from 
Boston. They were laden with an assortment of " Yankee notions," the ves- 
sels and cargos being owned by a company of Boston merchants, whose object 
was to open a trade for furs along the north-west coast of North America, and 
to combine this with a trade to China. Both commanders were provided with 
letters in conformity with a resolution of Congress, and also with friendly let- 
ters from the Spanish minister in the United States. Soon after passing around 
Cape Horn, the two vessels were separated by a violent storm, but succeeded 
in joining each other again in Nootka Sound on the west of Vancouver's 
Island, where they remained till the spring of 1789. During the summer of 
that year, while the Columbia remained at anchor in the sound, Captain Gray, 
in his little sloop of less than a hundred tons, made several excursions north 
and south along the coast, returning with the furs procured, and transferring 
them to the Columbia. In these excursions he made important explorations 



OUR TITLE TO OREGON. 7 

and was the first navigator to pass between the main land and many islands 
off the coast. Leaving Kendrick, by agreement, Gray, in the Columbia, pro- 
ceeded to China, exchanged his furs for a cargo of teas, sailed around the 
Cape of Good Hope, and across the Atlantic to Boston, thus carrying the 
American flag for the first time around the world. Meanwhile, Kendrick, in 
the Washington, made further explorations, and preceded all Europeans in 
passing through the Straits of Juan de Fuca from one end to the other. 

Again, in 1791, was Captain Gray, this time in command of the Colum- 
bia, busy exploring the inlets and passages of the north-west coast. In the 
summer of that year he met with what proved to be a most important success, 
in finding a great river. This river, in May of the following year, he en- 
tered, and for a distance of about twenty miles, carefully explored, bestow- 
ing upon it the name of his vessel, which it bears at the present day. The 
English navigator, Vancouver, had declared, after examining the coast, thai 
there was no river in that part of North America. The discovery of the 
Columbia and its exploration by Gray, contribute the first element in the 
United States title to the Oregon region. We have the testimony of the British 
commander, Mackenzie, that from this time, or a period four or five year-, 
later, till 18 14, the direct trade between the north west coast of North Amer 
ica and China was almost entirely in the hands of the Americans. These 
men were called " Yankee adventurers " by the British, for, with " only a few 
trinkets of little value," they would set out on their voyages. They would 
" pick up " seal-skins, furs, sandal-wood, sharks' fins, and pearls, and with 
these things and a few dollars, would purchase cargoes of tea, silks, and 
nankeens, getting home in two or three years. 

We now comcto the second element in the United States title to the 
Oregon region. In January, 1803, President Jefferson sent a message to 
Congress recommending that certain western explorations should be made. 
The recommendation having been approved, an expedition was planned and 
the command of it given to captains Lewis and Clarke. These two men 
were instructed to explore the Missouri River to its sources, and then " to seek 
and trace to its termination in the Pacific, some stream which might offer 
the most direct water communication across the continent." Before, how- 
ever, they set out, the news came that Napoleon had proposed to sell the 
Louisiana territory to the United States, and then that the sale and cession had 
been made. Did the " Louisiana Purchase " extend to the Pacific ? Who 
could answer that question better than President Jefferson himself? In a 
letter to Mr. Breckenridge, under date of August 12th, 1803, he sa y s : "The 
boundaries which I deem not admitting question, are the high lands on the 
western side of the Mississippi, inclosing all its waters ; the Missouri, of 
course." And, thirteen years later, when he was living in retirement at Monti- 
cello, and understood the question in the light that all those years had thrown 
upon it, he helped to prepare a map of the United States. To the map- 
maker, Mr. Mellish, he wrote a letter in which the following language occurs : 
" On the waters of the Pacific we can found no claim in right of Louisiana. 



8 OUR TITLE TO OREGON. 

If we claim that country at all it must be ' for other reasons.' " The last link 
in the chain of other reasons was completed in 1819, as we shall see. As 
the expedition up the Missouri and thence to the Pacific had been planned 
without reference to the acquisition of Louisiana, its departure was not de- 
layed because of that acquisition. Lewis and Clarke ascended the river, 
crossed to the head waters of the Columbia, and, descending that stream for 
a distance of six hundred miles, in November (1805) reached its mouth. 
This expedition, says Greenhow, " was an announcement to the world of the 
intention of the American government to occupy and settle the countries ex- 
plored, to which certainly no other nation, except Spain, could advance so 
strong a claim on the ground of discovery or of contiguity." 

The third element in the United States title to the Oregon region was 
furnished in 181 1 by a company whose operations were directed by John 
Jacob Astor, of New York. Where the city of Astoria, in Oregon, now 
stands, the company built sheds and a large factory. They also constructed 
and launched a small vessel, and laid out and planted a vegetable garden. 
We need not relate the particulars of the events of the next few years con- 
nected with the history of Astoria ; how, during our second war with England, 
the place fell into the hands of the enemy, and how after the war, because of 
a provision in the treaty of Ghent, it was restored to us. Our purpose is ac- 
complished when we state, on evidence that was finally admitted by all parties, 
that the Astor settlement was the first in all the Oregon region. 

No negotiations with any power were begun by the United States for the 
sovereignty of the Oregon region before the year 18 18. In that year it was 
agreed between our Government and Great Britain, that all the territory wes" 
of the Rocky Mountains, claimed by the United States or Great Britai. 
" should be free and open to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of both foi 
the space of ten years." It was at no time " asserted by the American gov- 
ernment that the United States had a perfect right to that region; it was in- 
sisted, however, that their claim was at least good as against Great Britain." 

We now come to the final element in the United States title to the Ore 
gon region. We have shown what claim Spain gained to the country as far 
north as the fifty-sixth degree of latitude. That claim, certainly to the larg- 
est portion of the territory, was indisputable. In 1819, a treaty, commonly 
called the Florida treaty, was made between Spain and the United States. 
By that treaty it was agreed that the southern boundary line of the Lnited 
States, on the west to the Pacific, should be the forty-second parallel of lati 
tude ; the king of Spain " ceding to the United States all his rights, claims, 
and pretensions, to any territory north of said line." This cession, it is ob- 
vious, completed the United States title to the Oregon region. That title, a. 
we have now shown, rests (1st) upon the discoveries and explorations mad 
by Captain Gray ; (2nd) the explorations conducted by Lewis and Clarke 
(3rd) the formation of the Astor establishment, and (4th) the title devise 
from Spain. The treaty made with Great Britain (in 1846) confirmed 01 
right, and left us in quiet possession of the region. 

89 \ 



